Tourism in Paraguay experienced a recovery in 2022 after two years of contraction as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, highlighted this Wednesday the minister of the National Secretariat of Tourism (Senatur), Sofía Montiel de Afara.
Source: EFE
“The year 2022 is the year of recovery, it is the year that will continue to give us positive surprises”, declared the official during a press conference in which she released a balance of the sector’s performance in the last four years.
According to Senatur figures, between January and November last, Paraguay received 1.3 million international visitors, which represented an increase of 133% compared to 2021, when the arrival of 570,602 foreign tourists was recorded.
In 2020, when sanitary and movement restrictions were imposed to prevent the spread of the covid-19 pandemic, thes international visit statistics to the country plummeted.
That year, 1,077,598 foreign visitors were recorded, 75% less than the 4.3 million foreign visitors who arrived on Paraguayan soil in 2019.
On the contrarydomestic tourism registered an increase of 4% in 2021, when 1.9 local visitors totaled, compared to 1.8 million in 2020.
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Between 2019 and 2020 there was a 2% drop in the total number of internal visitors, which went from 1,888,386 to 1,851,091.
Between January and November, the accumulated number of internal tourists amounted to 1,677,701, highlighted Senatur.
When giving an account of the income generated to the country, Montiel indicated thataccording to the balance of payments of the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP), a tourist spends an average of 690 dollars per stay in the country.
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That amount, he explained, was updated from the data he used as a reference in 2018, when the average cost that each tourist made during their visit was estimated at $351.
Official figures indicate that Between January and November, tourism contributed 514 million dollars, which represented an increase of 86% compared to the 276.7 million dollars that this sector left the country in 2021.
On the other hand, the minister anticipated that At the 43rd International Tourism Fair (Fitur), which will take place from January 18 to 22 in Madrid, Paraguay will promote its gastronomy.
During this event, our country will receive the distinction as capital of Ibero-American gastronomy 2023-2024, granted by the Ibero-American Institute of Gastronomy.
